Effects of Facebook on Personal Relationships

It is an undeniable fact that Facebook has had a profound effect on a lot of aspects of our life; none more so than on our personal relationships. Facebook was created with the idea of providing a way for people to interact. In a period of over a decade, it has grown to be much more than just that. It is not only a facilitator of relationships, but it defines personal relationships.

Reigniting Old Friendships

Most of us have a few hundred friends in our friend lists. This includes people we interact with today and also those with whom we have interacted in the past but are no longer in touch with. This means that Facebook is an excellent way to keep in touch with old friends and keep old friendships alive.

Developing New Ones

As for current friends, Facebook provides a very convenient platform to communicate, interact and have fun on. This extends our interaction time by giving us the opportunity to interact even when we are not together. With Facebook so mainstream, you can choose to spend all of your waking hours with a few people if you want to; something which would not have been possible a decade ago.

Relationships & Facebook

As far as relationships are concerned, Facebook provides us with a new way to show our partners that we care about them. A change of the display picture or a meaningful caption goes to show how you feel about your partner without being too over the top. Again, Facebook has provided means to interact with your partner when you are away and helps the two of you connect in ways not possible before. I also recommend you read Top things you should never do on Facebook when in a relationship.

The Negative Effects

All these positive effects of Facebook have helped us develop personal relationships like never before. However, it would be not be right to conclude this without discussing Facebook's negative effects. As a result of Facebook's infiltration of our lives and our time, we often do not have time to interact physically with people as often we should. Gatherings have turned into online chats and group discussions have been replaced by online video calls. This results in an unnatural way of interaction, something which should only facilitate, not replace physical contact.

Altogether, Facebook is a brilliant social interaction tool, but only if it is used to facilitate relationships, not replace existing ones. 

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